What Makes a Good Telemarketer?
March 28, 2011
B2B telemarketing is a sales profession that is obviously honed and perfected over the course of a person’s career – but what makes an ideal candidate for a career in telemarketing?
Well, people can be taught the basics and learn certain skills through training sessions, but ultimately it comes down to owning certain qualities and without them, the telemarketer will always struggle to reach the pinnacle of their profession. Some of these characteristics for telesales professionals include the ability to fully understand the products in which they are introducing to potential clients. Let’s face it, if the telemarketer cannot answer specific questions about the product or service they are selling, it is unlikely that they will ever have high sales or appointment making ratios. Therefore, the ability to be able to absorb the fundamentals of the product or service is critical in order to succeed as a telemarketer.
Of course, an important quality is that telemarketers need to possess a courteous nature even when being turned down by a prospect. If a telesales professional remains kind and courteous even when their proposition is turned down, the client can remember that and may just make a call days later to finalise a sale. Moreover, telemarketing professionals hear a lot of “no’s” so they must possess a high level of resiliency and realise that the rejection is not personal.
Use a positive approach in telemarketing management!
March 21, 2011
Call centre management is not an easy task especially when you are dealing with outbound telemarketing because although your staff are sales professionals, they are people not robots. Therefore, you have the power to build your team’s confidence or tear it down. Think about how many more sales and leads your telesales staff are going to bring in when they know they have supportive management. With telemarketing, words are powerful and therefore, the words you use to your staff are also powerful, for instance, never use words such as “must” and “should” when dealing with calls, these words, convey a negative response.
When it comes to telemarketing management and you listen to a call that could have gone better, use it to train, not belittle. Therefore, training would consist of phrases such as, “a different way to handle the call would have been..” because this is training, but if you said, “how many times do I have to tell you this?” it is belittling and you are creating a negative work environment, which most people will not enjoy or be productive in.
Good Practices in Telemarketing
March 1, 2011
Telemarketing good practices basically follow common sense and to a great extent mirror what is good practice for businesses in general. For instance, setting goals for various programs you have in place, and making sure these are realistic as well as measurable is a good practice.
Testing and refining of strategies and techniques is paramount to success.You need to have individuals or a team that can take your existing customer data and analyse it to see which companies and customers have the greatest possible profit margin. You need to know which organisations are most likely to use and buy your service or product so that you can focus your telemarketing efforts on businesses like these.
And this directly leads onto another good practice which is taking advantage of the flexibility that is engrained into any good telemarketing staff or agency. This means using a flexible, bespoke approach to campaigns, gaining an advantage by adapting your sales team according to market trends, and to the analysis of what works and what doesn’t work. If it does not work ditch it, but when something is working, develop it so you can be even more successful.
Telemarketing staff – born or made?
February 24, 2011
Obviously, when it comes to making your business successful, you need the best B2B telemarketing talent available to you. However, what many companies do not realize is the type of training you choose to provide your sales staff is what makes the difference of how successful they are overall. Of course, telemarketers along with any other type of sales professional have to have specific qualities that help them be more successful, such as self-confidence, service-oriented drive, and empathy. These aspects working together will undoubtedly make members of your team more successful.
So the challenge is to take a driven but inexperienced telemarketer and turn them into a successful telemarketing professional by providing initial training and, more importantly, ongoing training. Sales training does not end with a single one-time training session, you need to stay abreast of the latest trends in telemarketing and then share those with your staff.
Although there is always a need for generic “one fits all” training sessions the most successful telemarketing companies realise that ongoing training should incorporate tailored sessions to help with the individual training needs of staff and address specific areas of weakness or concern. Good trainers are obviously important – you need on your team someone who can train and motivate your sales team, because structured training sessions will undoubtedly impact on the bottom line of your company profits.
Telemarketing Techniques
February 15, 2011
Is using a telemarketing script a good technique to use when it comes to B2B? Many companies still believe a script is the only way to make sure their sales staff are getting their message out. However, many sales people naturally do better when they have a bit of leeway with the script because it comes across as more genuine to the customer.
For instance, some people simply would not say, “You have a beautiful day” but may say, “You have a wonderful day” both say the same thing, but if the telemarketer is happier with “wonderful” than “beautiful” it will comes across “human” rather than sounding like a script.
So it seems it’s okay to have a general telemarketing script, but when companies become so obsessed with making their sales team say words or phrases that are not natural to them, they could end up turning potential clients off.
Therefore, a telemarketing script can be a useful tool, but it needs to have some leeway with words that do not make much of a difference in the conversation but makes the telemarketer feel more confident – basically a framework of how the call should flow, but not with exact wording. Remember, the more confident your sales staff is with their delivery, the greater return on your investment into selling.